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[ENRIQUE SERVO Y DE LA CRUZ v. MARIANO ALCANABA](https://www.lawyerly.ph/juris/view/c2d8c?user=fbGU2WFpmaitMVEVGZ2lBVW5xZ2RVdz09)
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105 Phil. 322

[ G.R. No. L-13204, March 20, 1959 ]

ENRIQUE SERVO Y DE LA CRUZ, PETITIONER AND APPELLANT, VS. MARIANO ALCANABA, ET AL., RESPONDENTS AND APPELLEES.

D E C I S I O N

BENGZON, J.:

On September  23, 1953, at the corner of Atlanta and 13th streets, Port Area, Manila, a jeepney and an autobus, collided so violently that a passenger of the jeepney died on account of the injuries he received.

In  due course, the "two drivers  were  prosecuted  for homicide with damages to property through reckless imprudence.  After  trial,  the court  convicted  the driver of the bus, Enrique  Servo  y  de la Cruz, but acquitted the other driver.

The Court  of  Appeals,  affirmed the judgment of conviction  awarding, at the same  time,  a bigger indemnity to the heirs of the deceased.

On petition  for certiorari by way of appeal Servo moved for  review (G.  R. No.  L-12728)  contending that the appellate court had failed to make a finding as to whether the bus had hit the jeepney or vice-versa,  and to specify the act constituting his negligence.   For  lack  of  merit, we dismissed  such petition on September 3, 1957. Denial of a motion to reconsider followed on October 1, 1957.

Thereafter, on October 12, 1957, he started this habeas corpus  proceeding in the  Manila court of first  instance, asserting that the judgment of conviction was  null  and void  on its face because it  contained no specification of the  particular act,  punished by  law, committed by the accused.  His position rested on the  proposition that the Court of Appeals'  decision limited  its  findings of fact to the statement that "the two vehicles collided and one was  at fault" without  declaring who between the  two drivers, had caused the smashup through  his  negligence.

After hearing  the parties, the Honorable Juan P. Enriquez, Judge, refused to issue the writ, for three reasons: (1)  the petitioner  was  at  liberty under bail; (2) the judgment of conviction could not be  collaterally attacked nor reviewed on habeas corpus, and  (3) the decision set forth enough  findings of fact to sustain Servo's  conviction.

Servo appealed.

This is a mere dilatory move.  Appellant seeks another review of the judgment of conviction, on the very grounds explained  in his petition for certiorari  in  G. R. No. L12728, which petition we declined to entertain, for lack of merit,  in September 1957.

It may  be stated in this  connection that  in  a detailed and long opinion the Court  of Appeals,  after  describing the particular of the mishap,  the testimony of the witnesses, the condition of the streets, and the speed of the vehicles,  reached the final  conclusion  that this  driver was  guilty of reckless negligence.  Just before the  impact, it found, the bus was  speeding  (35 miles an hour) upon entering  a busy thoroughfare, whereas the jeepney moved  slowly[1], even as  it had the right of way.

The opinion  may not have explicitly declared  that "this driver acted recklessly for driving so  fast at a city intersection,  and  thereby  causing  the collision";  but such inference is easily implied from the facts related therein. In logic,  there  is  a  mode  of reasoning called "enthymeme", in which one of the premises is understood but not stated.

We must decline to go further; otherwise,  Servo would obtain the review which had precisely been denied  him way  back  in  September 1957.

Judgment affirmed with double costs against  appellant.

Paras, C. J. Padilla,  Montemayor,  Reyes  A., Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion Reyes J. B.  L., and Endencia JJ., concur.



[1] It had just shifted from first to second gear.

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